I'm in the early stages of research for extending a client's OLAP implementation. I'm fairly new to the field and I was wondering if there exists an OLAP client that has some sort of UI to facilitate the creation of dynamically calculated members without having to write MDX. Obviously, nothing out there can cover all the range of possibilities. Any ideas?

asterix wrote:I'm in the early stages of research for extending a client's OLAP implementation. I'm fairly new to the field and I was wondering if there exists an OLAP client that has some sort of UI to facilitate the creation of dynamically calculated members without having to write MDX. Obviously, nothing out there can cover all the range of possibilities. Any ideas?

I'm not sure exactly what it is that you're trying to do, but TM1 is one choice. It's capable of generating dynamic subsets via the GUI. Technically this IS done through MDX, but the code is generated in the background. It's not as flexible as "hand crafted" MDX code obviously, but it is capable of doing this.

Rather than just being told about it, it may be an idea to see it for yourself in action; contact IBM / Cognos and arrange them to send out a consultant. (Ask for one who's capable of doing a demo, not just writing a sales contract.)

I was wondering if there exists an OLAP client that has some sort of UI to facilitate the creation of dynamically calculated members without having to write MDX

You should look at PALO's subset functionality - It allows you to set up spreadsheets where you have parameters (N fo for Top N, X for > or < X etc) that define the subset returned dynamically. (And it's free!)

It's not for the faint-hearted as it takes a bit of thought, but it's very powerful.